PART SIX:  LOS ANGELES BBB --  NO CLOSURE WITH BBB COMPLAINT PROCESS

This is the sixth of a ten part investigative report into the standards and practices of the Better Business Bureau of the Southland, Inc., here-in-after referred to as the LA BBB.  This ten part report is the result of months of research, interviews, and information supplied or confirmed by a highly placed LA BBB employee of long standing who has requested confidentiality.

THE ANATOMY OF A COMPLAINT PART 3
A DISSECTION OF THE COMPLAINT HANDLING PROCESS OF THE LOS ANGELES BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU

Previously, our investigation of the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau revealed that the means by which a consumer submits a complaint to the BBB effects how it is handled. 

Internet submitted complaints, by far the most popular means of complaining about a business (80% of all complaints), are handled by the six employees in the Web Services Group.

All other complaints (mail, fax, phone, walk-in) which represent the remaining 20% of the complaint total are handled by the Customer Services Group of 25 employees.  

Both groups are charged with matching up the complaint with the appropriate business.  There are neither written nor standard operating procedures in place for either group on how to judge the severity or meaningfulness of a complaint.  Nor is there much time allotted to make this judgment.   (A complete breakdown of the complaint input process of the LA BBB is in part four of this series.)

This lack of procedure in the complaint input process guarantees that there is great room for error in how complaints are handled, categorized and assigned to the actual business the complaint was issued against.  Things don’t improve once the complaint is in the BBB system.

On a nightly basis, after either the Web  or Customer Services Group has processed and input the complaint into the Los Angeles BBB system, or database, automation takes over and the clock starts ticking.   Assumptions rule the day.   Without the use of return receipts, fax or delivery confirmations, the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau has no way of knowing whether the business that a consumer complained about ever received the complaint notification from the BBB, or even if the complaint was sent to the correct business, much less to the correct contact at that business.  Frankly, the Los Angeles Better Business doesn’t much care and time continues its fourteen day countdown toward the day of reckoning.   (A complete breakdown of the LA BBB complaint notification process is in part five of this series.)

Next comes the Complaint Closure process. 

Complaints are looked at a bit differently at the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau than perhaps you or I would look at them.  The LA BBB is not concerned with whether the complaint is resolved satisfactorily in the eyes of the complaint maker.  Nor is the LA BBB greatly concerned with the degree of good faith effort put into resolving the complaint.  They are not even overly concerned with the validity of the complaint.  And they certainly don’t care how long you were kept on hold by a company’s customer service line.  As we’ll see, the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau only cares that the business answer to the BBB.  The only complaints ever counted are those generated by the Better Business Bureau.  That is one vital step from complaints generated by the consumer. 

All complaints sent out on behalf of the consumer by the LA BBB end up in one of three categories:

•    Unanswered
•    Unresolved
•    Resolved   

“Unanswered complaints” seems fairly clear, but not so fast, never assume when dealing with the Los Angeles BBB.  An Unanswered Complaint does not necessarily mean the company failed to contact the complaining consumer.  As defined by the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau, an “Unanswered Complaint” is one a company did not respond to the LA BBB about. 

There are four main reasons a company may not respond to the BBB about a complaint:

1. they never received the complaint from the BBB. 
2. they received the complaint but in actuality it was not made against their company or wasn’t from a customer of theirs so they ignored it.
3. they answered the consumer directly without using the BBB as a middleman.
4. they truly did ignore the complaint. 

In all cases, the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau will treat these situations the same by labeling them Unanswered Complaints and penalize the business accordingly.   There are numerous judgment calls, flaws and room for error in the Los Angeles BBB complaint handling process.  In fact, it is entirely possible for a complaint that was quickly resolved, to the complete satisfaction of the complaining consumer, to be counted as an Unanswered Complaint by the Los Angeles BBB. 

Sound far fetched?  Not as testimony from this sworn deposition of November 2007 shows.

1.    In approximately May of 2004, I submitted a complaint to the Better Business Bureau of the Southland, Inc. (“BBB”) regarding issues I encountered {with a company}.  Shortly after I submitted my complaint, I was contacted by {the company} and promptly {had the issues resolved.}  I have been very pleased with their program.

2.    Shortly after I spoke with {the company} (I believe either in late May or June of 2004), I advised the BBB that my complaint had been resolved and that I was satisfied with {the company’s} services.

3.    Earlier this month, November 2007, I received a letter from an attorney for BBB.  The letter included a declaration for me to sign…I did not sign that declaration because it is not accurate.  For example, the declaration provided by BBB’s attorney makes no mention of the fact that I advised BBB that I was satisfied with {the company’s} response and their services.  Also, the declaration states that I was promised a refund but never received one.  I was not promised a refund.

At this point the business is screwed.  The business that has an unanswered, BBB generated complaint has no recourse with the Los Angeles BBB, even if the complainant notifies the BBB that the complaint was resolved to their satisfaction.   Once deemed an Unanswered Complaint  by the LA BBB, it will remain so in their database for three years.   In many cases, pointing out such circumstances to the Los Angeles BBB only gets the business’s BBB Letter Grade lowered further.   It pretty much takes divine intervention to make the LA BBB change a complaint’s closure status once it’s in the system, especially if the complaint is against a non-member business.   That, or in the case of it being the first such complaint, humbling oneself and immediately joining the Los Angeles Better Business has been seen to work in getting Unanswered Complaints removed. 

“Unresolved Complaints” are a bit trickier to define.  In BBB lingo, an Unresolved Complaint is one in which the complaining party (the consumer) is not satisfied with the company’s response or resolution efforts, and the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau agrees with this assessment.  Again, this is a judgment call with no standard operating procedure, or manual, in place for guidance.  Judgment calls often get made by BBB employees with no knowledge of the business’ policies, agreements, guarantees, return procedures or industry standards.  It is not hard to imagine a swing in this arbitrary judgment process being greatly influenced by the BBB membership status of the business.

“Resolved Complaints” are good, at least in the eyes of the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau, though not necessarily in the eyes of the consumer.  A Resolved Complaint, as defined by the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau, is simply a complaint that a company has responded to the BBB appropriately, as determined by the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau.  Here are the appropriate responses a business may make:   

• Making a full refund, as the consumer requested
• Making a partial refund
• Agreeing to perform according to their contract
• Refusing to make an adjustment
• Refuse to adjust, relying on terms of agreement

As far as the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau is concerned these are all the same.  In other words, all a business has to do, especially if they are a LA BBB member business is stick to their guns and refuse to make an adjustment with the consumer based on any number of reasons, make sure they notify the LA BBB of their stance, and the LA BBB will, in almost all cases, treat it as a resolved complaint.   Once a complaint reaches Resolved Complaint status it no longer counts against the company in its Letter Grade.  Therefore, one business can have a substantial history of complaints, yet receive an “A” grade from the LA BBB, while another, similar business can have less than a handful of complaints and receive a “D or an F” as the following example shows.

Nowhere on the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau website are complaint definitions or explanations available.  This holds true on most other regional BBB websites as well as the national BBB website.  This lack of transparency about what constitutes a complaint, how complaints are judged, and their impact on a business’ Letter Grade, are all reasons the BBB’s new Letter Grade system has proved unpopular with the media, the business community and over a third of the BBB regional offices themselves.

There is also a cumulative effect a complaint has on a business’ Letter Grade, similar to compound interest.  In addition to the merits or demerits assigned to a complaints closure designation (Unanswered, Unresolved, Resolved) complaints are given further value judgments on the seriousness of the complaints, the total number of complaints and an overall analysis of a complaint.    Thus, a single Unanswered Complaint can be counted against a business’ Letter Grade multiple times; negatively impacting the Unanswered Complaint, Serious Complaint, Total Complaints and Complaint Analysis sections of the algorithm.  (We'll explore the LA BBB algorithm in the next part of this series.)